A Brief Account of Radio-activity

A chemistry course left unfinished by a brief textbook treatment prompted F. P. Venable to gather these lectures on radioactivity. Written for students and busy readers in other sciences, the account follows discoveries from Becquerel's experiments with uranium salts to the identification of new active substances. Venable explains how measurements and comparisons led investigators to regard the activity as a property of atoms.

Six chapters connect the discovery of radium and polonium with the behavior of different rays, changes in active materials and emerging ideas about atomic structure. The supplied experimental discussion describes how Rutherford and Royds identified helium produced from alpha particles, linking an observation in the laboratory to a larger claim about matter. Readers approaching the book today can follow an earlier stage of scientific explanation, with attention to the evidence behind conclusions and to the distinction Venable draws between durable observations and changing theories.